Ægteskabudengrænser.dk

Integrationsministeren vil undersøge muligheden for at indføre et dokumentationskrav til unionsborgere, der søger ophold i Danmark med ægtefælle.

http://politiken.dk/politik/article556370.ece

For mig virker det mest af alt, som om regeringen er helt desperat for at få det til at se ud, som om den "gør noget". Hvilket støttepartiet jo også fortsætter med højlydt at kræve.

Ja ja, folk skal vise deres lejekontrakt og deres lønsedler til Udlændingeservice, når de søger efter EU-reglerne. Men hvad ellers? Der var da f.eks. næppe nogen her i ÆUG, som havde forestillet sig, at det ville være anderledes.

To fundiver :

Never let your own state to ask you to prove the validity of your european citizenship.

Just give them the certificate you got when you registered as European Citizen in Sweden or whatever member state.

If the Danish administration thinks there is fraud, il should be up to the administration to go to court and attack you.

But if you let the administration to say : "maybe it's fraud and before to deliver any title to your spouse, you have to give us proof that there is no fraud" so you open the door to let the administration to say "well, well, well, we need 6 months or one year to check the validity of the documents you gave to us so your spouse will have to wait till we made up our mind".

The Key is : If you have one right the administration doesn't like, all the game of the administration will be to challenge your legitimacy to be entitled to use this right by:

1) saying that it is up to you to prove that you don't fraud (and not up to them to prove that you fraud)
2) saying that they need time to check your legitimacy (and that's the very reason behind their ask to Bruxelles to be allowed to ask you more documentation : to have a good excuse to spent months or years in order to "check" this documentation whatever you fraud or not).

If you let them to open this door, another member state will ask to Bruxelles to be allowed for exemple to ask for birth certificate of your spouse in order to check it is the real person and little by little, the member states will obtain a full list of documents that they will be happy to challenge and it will be the death of the European road.

If they think it may be fraud, force them to attack you in front of the judicial system and don't let the administration to have the power to decide by itself.

Sorry for my english ...

You are right Pierre. It might very well be part of the danish goverments "game plan" to drag things out in order to discourage people from using their EU-rights. Still EU-rules say, that a member state has 6 month to issue a residense permit to the foreign spouse, so there is little one can do to prevent them from taking this time.

Whatever kind of political agreement, that might be reached between the danish government and the EU-commission is unfortunatly out of our hands, so guess we will just have to wait and see about that, and what the consequences migth be.

However, if coming requirements for documentation are against EU rules, and are used deliberately as an obstacle, I think ÆUG should fight against this in the court. But we will just have to wait and see, what the danish government will come up with as its "answer" to the ruling in the Metock case.

Personally, I think the government itself would prefer to just PRETEND to do something, but in reality turn the blind eye to the fact, that more danish people will make use of their EU-rights in the future. However, Dansk Folkeparti probably won`t let the government get away with this, so the political "noise level" in this matter will continue to be very high, if nothing else.

If we were sure it is only a matter of 6 months duration, it would be paradise ...

I'm only French so I don't know from inside how it is in Denmark but based on the French experience, I think that what they want to challenge first is your European Citizenship and, it is only my feeling, to challenge it before to allow you to give them a submission for your spouse as a European citizen family. So i'am not sure that this story is only inside the 6 month period. I'm afraid they want to put something with plenty of consumming time prior to the submission of family reunification.

Take for exemple the english way. You are English in England and you managed to be legitimate to use the European Citizenship. You have to ask a certificate of European Citizen at your city hall and they have to deliver it immediately. Only when you have this certificate, your spouse has to make a written submission by post (including your certificate) to a specialized unit that will have 6 month maximum to answer. But what happens if they get the possibility to challenge your ask for your own Certificate in order not to deliver it immediately ? Your spouse cannot send the full submission and the 6 month maximum period doesn't start...

I think they may have something like that in mind in your kingdom. That's why it seems to me that the main point is to get official certificate of your European Citizenship from another member state - not to let your own state to appreciate it - not to let the guest state to know if you are married or if you plan to marry - and to give it as proof to your own state in order not to let them to ask time to check your legitimacy to be European Citizen before to allow you to submit the file for your spouse.

Because if they are allowed not to recognize immediately your own European Citizenship, they make the Metock Case to fell. They are allowed to refuse to deliver visa or to expell your spouse which was in another member state before they have to recognize its right.

But what I say is pure speculation until I know 100% if it is possible to make the first ask for visa or family reunification in your own country.

What I know 100% when you use your European Citizenship is :

1) the guest member state (and not your own member state) has to deliver a visa to your spouse (if she/he is out of Europe) faster than the maximum period he has to deliver for spouse of its own citizens. (in France, it is two months, they want to put it to 4 months before to allow you to go the French court and the court has 2 months to judge it).

2) The guest member state has 6 month to deliver a 5 years residence certificate to your spouse whatever your spouse is legal or illegal in this state.

What I'am not sure is :

3) I'am not sure if you can ask in your own state visa for european family reunification when your spouse is still out of Europe but you are yourself entitled to use your European Citizenship in your own state. (does the European legislation consider there is still two member states in the story ?).

4) I'am not sure neither if, one time you are yourself entitled to use your European Citizenship in your own country, you are allowed to ask the first residence certificate for your spouse as European family (whatever your spouse is legal or illegal) in your own country or if you have to ask this first certificate in another member state.

5) I don't know if there is a time duration for your European Citizenship. I mean for exemple : you are 18 years old (not yet thinking of marriage, partnership or whatever). You go to another country and you come back to Denmark and you make your Kingdom to recognize your European Citizenship and you live under it. Few years latter, you decide to marry with 3. country. Are you still allowed to use your European Citizenship to make your spouse or partner to come straight to Denmark without the need to stay first in another member state ?

Hi Pierre

You have some very good points, and I am happy, that such a capacity has joined our little site here. Regarding your points 3) and 5), my advice to people is, that they should get their spouse to Europe before or during their stay in another EU-memberstate. Because I to am really not sure, if we have or will get these rights.

Regarding your point 4), this is critically important to judge, if the Metock case has any relevance for returning citizens or not. The Metock case involved 4 EU-citizens, who were living in another memberstate and not returning citizens.

We therefore don`t know explicitly how the court would rule in a similar situation involving returning citizens. However, as I understand it, it is a generel rule, that a returning citizen must have at least the same rights as he would have, if he moved to another memberstate.

Also, loking at the practical part of the matter, it is surely an obstacle for movement, if ANY citizen need to wait 6 month for the issuance of a 5 year residence permit to his spouse in one memberstate, when he has already found a new job and decided to move to another memberstate. And it doesn`t matter at all in this aspect, if this memberstate is his home memberstate or not, the obstacle is just the same.

For these two reasons, I would assume, that you CAN apply for the first 5 year spousal residence permit as a returning citizen in your own country, but obviously this might be something, that the danish government will try to challenge. They have promised to issue some new guidelines soon, and we will know much more about the situation, when that has happened.

As a small side remark, if this is not the case, then I dought we would have seen such a big political stir in Denmark about the Metock case. The danish politicians obviously are not worried, that it will get easier for french citizens to move to Danmark with their non-EU spouses. What they are worried is, that it will be easier for DANISH citizens to qualify as EU-citizens and bring their non-EU spouses with them, when they move back to Denmark after a short stay in another EU-memberstate.